Victoria ward member Councillor Roger Hunneman will be quizzing West Berkshire Council’s Executive over recent reports of cracking in Victoria Park and nearby homes at Thursday night’s Executive meeting.

Commenting ahead of the meeting, Councillor Hunneman said “It is important to quickly establish the reason for this quite serious cracking before it gets any worse.  I will be pressing the District Council to assist in any way with the Town Council, who have taken the initiative to employ consultants to get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible”.

The text of the question Councillor Hunneman will be asking is as follows:

The Executive Member responsible for the Newbury Vision will no doubt be aware of reports of ‘Newbury cracking up’ with damage to both Victoria Park and residents’ homes showing in recent weeks.  Will the Executive Member take leadership on this important issue to establish whether this has anything to do with water extracted in the course of developing Parkway and work with Newbury Town Council and other parties to find a way to stop this situation getting any worse?

I'm not sure why Mr H needs to bang his drum by publicising his "question in the House". I'll bet Pam will have the answer though.

Small world....is this the same Roger Hunneman who campaigned for an even bigger underground car park, or is someone extracting the *****

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=6254

Quoted from Threepwood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xusqV0vAOfg



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Absolutely hilarious......  Just wish my smiilies worked.....

Just type them, this is the laughing one...  ;D

Quoted from 9

I'm not sure why Mr H needs to bang his drum by publicising his "question in the House".

Pretty obvious, he sees an opportunity to embarrass the Tories for WBC lack of support for NTC's attempt to find out why WBC's park is deteriorating so badly.

Quoted from 9

I'll bet Pam will have the answer though.

Not quite - she didn't seem to know what was going on.  Living in Pangbourne I suppose she doesn't get to Newbury much ...

Quoted from Meddler

Small world....is this the same Roger Hunneman who campaigned for an even bigger underground car park, or is someone extracting the *****

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=6254

I don't see the issue here?  Surely it is okay to support the building of something and still expect it to be built in a responsible manner that doesn't involve damaging the entire neighbourhood.  According to the plans the car park should have been about ready by now and, I guess, the pumping finished.  If Parkway had been built on time would the cracks ever have appeared?  Has the extended period of pumping exacerbated the problem?

And 'campaigned' is a strong word when all he did was express his opinion that the addition of a few more parking spaces was good news.

Quoted from pinkcoral04

Absolutely hilarious......  Just wish my smiilies worked.....

Very good, plus it's the first time I've heard the Newport song all the way through. Brilliant!

Are these cracks still appearing now we're not in the driest month for 80 years?

Quoted from user23.3

Are these cracks still appearing now we're not in the driest month for 80 years?

I'm no expert, but I think cracks appear when there is a change.  So even if August was drier than normal, it is the difference in the dryness that is the issue, viz, water per sqm and at what depth the water table is over time.

By the way, rainfall was well above average for the South in the month of August, 2010. It was also the forth dullest August on record.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/

Quoted from user23.3

......... driest month for 80 years?

That may be an out for WBC but it's not causing problems as far as Thames Water is concerned. The water table generally is nowhere near as low as it was when the hosepipe ban was in operation a couple of years ago. So much so, that they have no intention of repeating the ban this year.

Quoted from Greenham Common

I'm no expert, but I think cracks appear when there is a change.  So even if August was drier than normal, it is the difference in the dryness that is the issue, viz, water per sqm and at what depth the water table is over time.

By the way, rainfall was well above average for the South in the month of August, 2010. It was also the forth dullest August on record.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/

August wasn't drier than usual, the month preceding it was though.

Are cracks still appearing now we've had some rain?

Quoted from user23.3

August wasn't drier than usual, the month preceding it was though.

Are cracks still appearing now we've had some rain?

Is that what's known as the WBC swerve.

The question is, what caused the cracks in the first place. They started appearing before end of July.

Quoted from 9

Is that what's known as the WBC swerve.

The question is, what caused the cracks in the first place. They started appearing before end of July.

Seems to some sort of swerve as neither of you have answered a simple yes/no question.

The dry spell started before July. Are cracks still appearing now we've had some rain?

Quoted from user23.3

Seems to some sort of swerve as neither of you have answered a simple yes/no question.  The dry spell started before July. Are cracks still appearing now we've had some rain?

How the ferk do I know?  And just because there might or might not be any cracks is no proof of anything.  I only corrected you that we haven't just left the driest month in 80 years.  I would imagine the reason for these cracks is not straight forward.  My old house is built by a natural spring, and there are no cracks there at all that weren't there in previous years.  How is the rest of the town doing?